This year, I really dedicated myself to reading more.

Not more books, but more often.

To recap, I didn’t finish any books in 2024. I started a book that I ended up hating and dropping, and I started another that I would finish after a year. That’s not because it was too difficult to read, it’s just cause I wasn’t reading.

However, something is working now. Something clicked. I can honestly say that I’m reading more often now than I was a year ago. It’s great, and I love it.

It’s clearly starting to seep into my internet browsing habits as I have been getting served a lot of content about reading. Most of which are great and thoughtful. Lists of books that people love, explorations on why reading matters, and people complaining about book-tok.

Anytime I get served a video hating on book tok, I really can’t help myself. Like truly.

In my defense, I don’t go seeking this kind of content out, but videos of people saying how much they don’t like something get a lot of engagement and therefore, show up in my feed like a cat bringing a dead bird into the house. The only difference being that I sometimes like having the so-called dead bird around.

As someone who fairly recently started trying to read more, it feels funny to watch people talk about reading. I understand watching people talk about or play video games, but for some reason, reading doesn’t compute with me.

It feels weird, like I shouldn’t join in the conversation because if I’m trying to read more, shouldn’t I be reading? Or maybe it’s because I don’t feel like I read enough to justify joining in the conversations around reading.

However, internet content around reading is just weird.

You know how trends exist online?

Like, how one person gets millions of views doing something, and then billions of people do the exact same thing for some reason?

That’s happening to reading, but instead of people actually reading the book to read the book, they read it so they can say they read it.

Honestly, that’s not that bad.

As long as someone is enjoying themselves, that’s fine, but I personally don’t understand why someone would read so they can keep up with their neighbors, but hey, reading is good, so reading more is good, right?… RIGHT?

I hope so.

Another layer of this is that it’s not just about reading the book, but making it seem like you read the book. Book stylists are a thing, and it wouldn’t be surprising that all these book trends are encouraging people to buy the book just so they can have it on the shelf, take pictures with it, and style it with their favorite pants.

To me, that’s pretty sad.

What’s really crazy to me, though, is AI summaries of books.

A crazy trend I’ve seen is people using AI to summarize a book and then say they read the book.

That’s crazy, man.

Like, so wild.

That’s just… a lie?

I can sympathize with people who can’t read for whatever reason. I fully recognize that some people can’t read books. However, a 10-minute summary of a book is selling yourself and the work of art way short. Audio books are a great option for those who can’t sit down to read. Maybe try that instead?

I have a feeling this trend will end once people read the summary of Fahrenheit 451 cause like… It’s literally Fahrenheit 451. Unless the AI decides to exclude this, then well… they missed a pretty important part of the book. This is a huge issue with AI summaries.

Not to mention that the prose an author uses is important. If a book were supposed to be only about the plot, then the author wouldn’t have written all those words.

Reading is about the journey (sitting down with a book), not the destination (finishing a book). Which, also, if what you get out of reading a book is saying that you read a book, you might be reading it wrong. No offense.

No one cares if you read 1 400-page book or 50 300-page books in a year. As long as you enjoyed your time reading, that’s enough.

Take it from me, someone who read 0 books in 2024, try your hardest not to care about what other people think about your reading habits.

Cause at the end of the day, the only person who will benefit from you reading is you.

Unless you don’t read, then awesome, don’t read! You’re fine. You’re doing great. Keep at it, ok? and have a good week, yeah?

If you want to read, read. If you own books, read them. If you don’t like a book, stop reading it. If you want to read more, read more.

Just do you, ok?